The Fourth Master
by Impiex
Summary: When the Tenrou-Group returns after seven years - Fairy Tail is still a powerful guild! Their new, unknown master had managed the guild well, however, he seems to be up to an even greater aim and has strange connections to the royal family. His actions cause suspicion, especially among Natsu and his friends. And soon everyone wonders, if the fourth master can be trusted or not...
1. I-1 Interview

[Pre Note: The first five or six chapters will still be set before the events on Tenrou Island to introduce you to Makarov's successor as Fairy Tail's master.]

Magnolia, 784

"What was your name again?" Makarov asked the boy sitting on the opposite side of the table.  
"Magnus," he answered softly, "Magnus Cers."  
His voice was low and quiet, calm and monotone. He would have almost sounded outright _bored; _if it wasn't for that undertone in his voice that revealed how carefully he seemed to observe everything around him.  
Making a "m-h"-sound, Makarov started to note something down on the piece of paper in front of him, only to stop abruptly. Magnus knew perfectly well what was going on in the old man's mind.  
"It's C-E-R-S," he stated.  
"Thank you," Makarov replied, "And your age?"  
"Fifteen, since a few weeks."  
Noting this down, Makarov took a glimpse at Magnus to examine him a bit. Whereas his blue hair was nothing unique, regarding Levy and Wendy, it clearly made him stand out. From what Makarov could see right now, Magnus was quite in shape and had an athletic body. Regarding Magnus' overall build and face, he would have easily been mistaken for some years older, if it wasn't for his obviously too large white shirt. When Makarov noticed that Magnus started to fiddle with the top button of his shirt, he realized that he had mustered him a little bit too long and that the boy must feel rather uncomfortable right now.

"Ah-hem," Makarov cleared his throat, "So would you like to tell me a little bit about yourself?"  
"Ehm..." Magnus looked as if he had never expected this question to come up. "Like what, for example?" he asked with a terribly faked smile to cover his nervousness, scratching the back of his head.  
"Maybe you might tell me why you are wishing to join Fariy Tail," Makarov replied softly, trying to make Magnus feel less uncomfortable. "Or about what you have done prior to today."

"Well," Magnus, feeling relieved despite showing almost no change in his expression, started, "Up until now, I had been studying Finances and Economy at the Royal University of Crocus. Our school had a club for mages, where they could train and fight. I joined it and also took part in some battles against other schools. Now that I have got my diploma, I thought I might just enjoy myself and find some nice people to chat with for some time. You know, before the working life with all its exhausting stress begins. That's why I thought it might be a good idea to join a guild."

"I thought you were fifteen, how did you earn your diploma that early?" Makarov asked curiously.  
"Well, you are right, you usually get earn your diploma at the age of twenty or even later. I do not to want to show off, but... If you are good, you might be able to fasten this up by one or two years... And if you are better than good, then even by five years," Magnus said. He did not like to talk to other people about his intelligence, because he always feared they would regard him as an arrogant show-off.  
"_A finance-genius, hu_?" Makarov thought ",_He might come in handy. After all, we still have tons of debts._"  
"Interesting, interesting," he muttered while running his fingers through his beard, "And why did you choose Fairy Tail and not any other guild?"  
"After all, I was raised in Magnolia," Magnus stated unexpectedly confidently, "The members of Fairy Tail are heroes for everyone in Magnolia! It would have been really weird for me not to want to join Fairy Tail, wouldn't it?"  
Makarov chuckled a bit, then replied, "Very well, I think you will fit well into our guild! But you haven't told me what type of magic you use yet, have you?"  
"Oh, yes. Well, concerning this..." Magnus took a file out of his bag standing next to his chair, "You might simply regard the data-file the university created for me. It is written on the very first page."  
Makarov opened the file and almost exclaimed, "Seven different types of magic? For your age, this is impressive!"  
"Thank you," Magnus replied and blushed a bit, "See, it would have taken too much time to list all seven types and explain them in detail, so giving you my file to read them seemed like the better idea to me."  
"Hehe, you might be right. Would you mind if I will keep this file for a while and read it? You can just go outside now and ask Mira to give you the guild symbol."  
A smile appeared on Magnus' face.  
"Thank you! Thank you!" he exclaimed, stood up and over-enthusiastically shook Makarov's hand whose owner was shocked and surprised by the boy's sudden mood-swing. Magnus reached out for his bag, headed towards the door and opened it, before turning back and claiming "I won't disappoint you!" before closing the door behind him-

Makarov continued to study Magnus' file and eventually reached a page with the headline "Battle Statistics".  
"'Official battles: 17'," he read aloud, "'Battles won: 17' Hehe, I have the feeling that you will definitely not disappoint me..."

[Author's Notes: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter despite the lack of action. I'd appreciate your comments and feedback^^]


	2. I-2 Encounter

When he entered the room, Magnus was puzzled at the sight of an argument between a pink-haired guy and a blue cat with a nudist and what seemed to be his fangirl. But as nobody else seemed to bother, Magnus thought it'd be best not to interfere and, instead, he turned to the barmaid.  
"Uhm, excuse me, you are Mirajane, aren't you?"  
Magnus was sure he'd recognize her face from the various posters and magazines.  
"Yes," she replied in a friendly tone, "But you can call me 'Mira', like everyone else does. What can I do for you?"  
"The master sent me to you. See, he has just accepted my request to join Fairy Tail an-"  
"Ha, congratulations!"  
"Thank you," he replied with a smile, "And he said that you'd give me my guild symbol."  
"Okay, I will do this", she said, then turned around to face another girl who had just appeared next to her.  
"Lisanna, could you do me a favour and bring me the stamp four our guild symbol?"  
"Sure," she answered, "Did we get a new member?"  
"Silly," Mira teased her and pointed at Magnus, "He is standing right in front of you!"  
"Argh, how embarrassing," she almost moaned, then turned to Magnus, waved at him with a smile and said, "Welcome to Fairy Tail, I am Lisanna, Mira's sister."  
"Nice to meet you," he replied, "My name is Magnus."  
While Lisanna left the main hall to bring the stamp, the argument between the nudist and the pink-haired seemed to tense up. Now, even the other guild members started looking at them, but none of them even tried to calm them down, but rather encouraged them to start a full fight, with the exception of a red-haired woman. The way she glanced at them sent shivers up Magnus' spine, yet, the two did not seem to notice.  
"Mira-nee," Lisanna suddenly reappeared, "I can't find the stamp, are you sure that it is still in the storage?"  
Magnus turned around to watch into her direction – only to see a chair flying through the air out of the corner of his eye! Not having enough time to shout "watch out", he quickly reacted, lifted his left arm and spread his fingers.  
"Wah!" Lisanna shouted visibly shocked and changed into a defensive stance. A black sphere, with a diameter of at least one metre had suddenly appeared floating next to her! Everyone turned their heads towards her and for some seconds, it was completely silent as everyone stared at this pitch-black ball floating around in the air.

Then, Magnus moved his fingers to each other and when their tips touched each other again, the sphere disappeared.  
"What was that thing?" A man with a pipe asked.  
"My magic," Magnus answered loud enough so that everyone could hear him, "I had to use it because _someone_" – he moved his head towards the two quarrellers – "someone apparently threw a chair at her."  
"Oy, Grey, why did you throw a chair at her?"  
"What? Only _you_ are stupid enough to do something like this!"  
"If I had thrown a chair, it would have hit_ you _and not Lisanna!"  
"And you think I could not aim at your face, toad?"  
"It is _Salamander_!"  
Magnus sweatdropped. _This_ was the famous Salamander?  
"And yes, I do believe that you're too dumb to hit me!"  
"Oh, you want to see, if I can hit you? I will show you, if I can hit your face or not!"  
"Ahem," the red-haired woman cleared her throat and immediately gained everyone's attention. The two guys seemed to be paralyzed for a moment.  
"E-Erza?" Salamander eventually dared to speak.  
"Since when were you listening?" The other one asked. Fear could be seen in both guys' eyes.  
"Long enough," Erza answered. Although she was not speaking loudly, her determination made every word sound like a shout at the top of her lungs.  
"I told you to behave and not to start a fight again!"  
Both guys now gulped.  
"But-," Erza turned to Magnus. He was not happy that she was now looking at him, definitely not happy at all!  
"I was the one who threw the chair."  
"YOU?" Natsu exclaimed.  
"It was supposed to hit you two idiots, but I seem to have underestimated my strength. I apologize, Lisanna," Erza said, blushing a bit.  
"N-No problem," Lisanna replied, trying to hide her shock and how awkward the situation felt for her with a sweet smile.  
A moment of silence passed, but was suddenly disrupted:  
"Still...I would have hit you!"  
"You want me to hit you with a chair?"  
"Even a little girl could hit me harder than you could!"  
"You wanna try out?"  
"SHUT UP YOU TWO!"

"S-Sorry, Erza..."


	3. I-3 Introduction

"So you are the new guy here?"

Erza walked towards Magnus and, stretching forth her hand, greeted him, "Welcome! I'm Erza Scarlet."  
"Thank you, I am Magnus Cers," he replied and shook hands with her; a decision he immediately regretted. The tightness and overall strength of her grip reminded him of a crocodile trying to crush a fish with its jaws. Magnus did not remember a single occasion when he felt as relieved as he did when she finally loosened her grip. In contrast to him struggling not to cry because of this pain, a tall man sitting a few metres away from Magnus enthusiastically shouted, "Wow, that was manly how you saved my little sister! Your magic is a true man's magic!"  
"Speaking of which," Erza continued, "I have never seen this type of magic before. Tell me about it, I'm really curious."  
With "me" and "I", she obviously meant "everybody" as everyone seemed to watch Magnus now and to listen to what he'd say with a certain curiosity. Magnus realized that he was at the centre of attention. As he was the newest member of the guild, he thought that it was natural for everyone else to be interested in his background.  
"It is a magic related to Black Hole magic," Magnus told them loud enough so that everyone could understand him, "The sphere works like a one-way portal to another dimension. You can enter it, but you can never leave it. I'll show you..." Magnus took a piece of paper and created a small sphere, not larger than a human's fist. He then put one edge of the paper into the sphere and pulled it out again. The edge was gone and the paper had a round cutting edge. He made the sphere disappear again and continued, "See, even if you won't let the sphere disappear; whatever is inserted will be gone. You really should be careful whenever one of them is around; otherwise, you may easily loose a limb. That's why I rarely use this technique. It is simply too dangerous, even for the user."  
By the look of their faces, Magnus could tell that none of the Fairy Tail mages had ever seen a magic like this. Some even looked outright terrified. He believed they were imagining now accidently falling with their arm in one of his spheres or something like this.  
"Truly, an interesting type of magic," Erza finally broke the silence after a few seconds.  
"But, wait a second," a blonde girl standing next to Salamander asked, "If even you are afraid of using this magic, how are you even battling without taking a huge risk?"  
"That's a good question," Mira commented.  
"Well, this is not the only type of magic I can use," Magnus answered, "In fact, there are a total of seven types of magic I have learnt-"  
"Seven?" someone interrupted him.  
"But I usually fight with my air magic."  
"Before you can continue to interview him," Lisanna now said aloud, "Has anyone seen our guild stamp? I can't find it anywhere and Magnus still needs the symbol."  
"I think it should be lying around there," Erza said, pointing at the wall on her left.  
"Why would you think so?" Mira asked her a little bit confused.  
"Because I threw it into that direction when I was trying to hit Natsu some days ago."

After this somewhat strange encounter with Erza, Magnus finally received his guild symbol on his forearm and the Strauß-sisters introduced him to everything he had to know about the guild: The second floor for the S-class mages, the request board, the Balam Alliance, Laxus' recent attempt to become the new master and his expulsion and most of the Fairy Tail members. Magnus had to realize that all of them were really nice people, even Erza – although that realization did not stop him from fearing her rage. But he was especially shocked when he was told that Mystogan had left the guild – Magnus had always admired the myths and stories surrounding him, but even more, he became very curious when the Strauß-sisters told him that the story of how he left the guild was too long to be explained now.

Eventually, his little introduction to more or less everything finished in front of the request board.  
"I think I'll be going on a mission right away," he thought aloud.  
"But it may be wise not to leave alone on your very first mission," Mira advised him.  
"Yeah, you're right," her sister agreed, "Maybe I might accompany you? You know, I really could need the money from a new mission right now."  
"Sure," he answered, actually wondering, whether it would be more efficient to go alone.  
"And as a bonus," Lisanna winked at him with a smirk, "I might tell you what happened to Mystogan -"  
Magnus lifted an eyebrow. Now she got his full attention.  
"But only," she teased him, "If you behave like a good boy!"

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed the story so far, feel free to write a review. And I promise that it won't take too long until the main part of the story eventually beginns!


End file.
